More Evidence That Fusion Surgeries Often Don’t Work

An article on MSNBC discusses a personal story of two back fusion surgeries where it seemed like the surgery was helping and then it the pain just got worse.

Finally, Scatena made an appointment with another surgeon, one whom friends had called a “miracle worker.” The new doctor assured her that this second operation would fix everything, and in the pain-free weeks following an operation to fuse two of her vertebrae it seemed that he was right. But then the pain came roaring back.

Based on the statistics in the article it certainly makes sense to avoid fusion surgery at all costs.

After two years, just 26 percent of those who had surgery returned to work. That’s compared to 67 percent of patients who didn’t have surgery. In what might be the most troubling study finding, researchers determined that there was a 41 percent increase in the use of painkillers, specifically opiates, in those who had surgery.

Another study finds that minimally invasive fusion surgery is better then regular surgery, but that probably does not change the end result too much,